


Unlikely One

by ravager_of_dwarves_and_elves



Series: The Unlikely One [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Action, Angst, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Probably ooc, Romance, but I can't bring myself to care becasue I want happy happy joy joy Bruce, multi-chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-19
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 07:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1143183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravager_of_dwarves_and_elves/pseuds/ravager_of_dwarves_and_elves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce Banner connects with a young woman in an attempt to cure himself of the Hulk. Together they work for a cure, fall in love with an 'unlikely one', and face Bruce's demons. </p><p>I am a huge Stanner fan, but I also love Bruce without Betty and I couldn't find a Bruce/OC that flipped my skirt so I decided to write one for myself. This is my first multi-fic and second Avengers fic. Please read if you love Bruce Banner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multi-fic and I am so excited! I have absolutely fallen in love with Bruce and his demons and I wanted to write a fic where I could play around with an OC. I am a huge proponent of Stanner, but I also like Bruce with an OC and after reading so many of the same fics where the girl had some kind of mutant ability that suppressed Hulk's rage (no offense to anyone who has written or was planning on writing or is in the process of writing a fic like that), I got bored and this bloomed from boredom. I try not to be evil with cliffhangers and such, but I make no promises. Happy reading to all!

Lucy Monroe needed rest and she just wasn't getting it with her ceiling raining down on her. She tossed to the other side of her bed-trying her best to ignore the couple in the apartment above hers. She sighed and grumbled a few expletives before finally throwing off the comforter, blanket and sheet of her king sized bed and moving to find something to wear. 

She pulled on a pair of jeggings, a cream camisole and green cardigan, her favorite crochet scarf and boots before making her way to the living room. She went to her small turtle tank, fed her Box turtle Benedict before grabbing her pea jacket, purse and keys. She locked the door behind her before braving the cold winds of a New York winter morning. Her feet seemed to carry her without her even having to think about where she wanted to go. 

The library was her favorite place to go when she was unable to think or get work done. 

She opened the door to the library with her key card at 3:21 in the morning-newlyweds were really starting to piss her off. She made her way to the back reading room when she noticed that the lights were on. She froze instantly and slowly lowered her purse to the floor and pulled out her can of pepper spray. She crept through the open doorway-finger poised on the trigger of the spray bottle- and the sight that greeted her made her smile. 

A man was asleep at one of the tables. He wore dark jeans, a green sweater with a white tshirt beneath and a pair of brown loafers that had seen better days. Books and coffee cups were strewn around him, glasses askew on his handsome face. 

Lucy put her pepper spray down and crossed to the man's side, taking his broad shoulder in her hand and shaking. The man startled up quickly and Lucy took an involuntary step back. He straightened his glasses and pulled his sweater straight again before looking around dazedly before Lucy came into his line of sight.   
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." She ventured with a smile. The man grunted once before looking her up and down. 

"You? Startle me? Please. I doubt your 5'5'' and 130 pound self could do much damage to anyone-especially me." His gaze traveled back from the toes of her boots to her eyes. At her affronted look and the pepper spray still in her hand, he began to backtrack.

"I-I'm sorry. That was mean. I'm not myself when I'm only slightly awake. I apologize." He lowered his gaze to the coffee cup directly in front of him and began to twist it between his hands. "I'm Bruce. Banner." He said before looking up at Lucy. 

Lucy nodded once in acceptance before stepping forward, she placed the pepper spray on the table and reached out her hand. 

"Lucy Monroe. By the looks of all the coffee cups, you've been here a while." Bruce took her hand gently and pumped it three times before dropping it. His hand had been warm and slightly rough and had engulfed hers, but Lucy had felt oddly comforted by it. 

"I've been here since..." Bruce looked at the silver watch on his wrist and grinned. "Since around nine o’clock yesterday." He sighed before running a hand through the black curls at the back of his head. "What are YOU doing here so early, Miss Monroe?" 

"Lucy's fine." She pulled out the chair closest to Bruce and sat down before she continued. "I was woken up by the sounds of wild, hot sex and my ceiling raining on me."   
Bruce grimaced and his cheeks pinkened adorably before she continued. 

"So I figured the best place to go was the library if I wanted some quiet. There's a couch in the break room that I have seen more times this week than my own bed." She sighed before looking back to Bruce. "How come you've been here so long? Normally it's only me that's here at indecent hours." She watched Bruce look around the small room before he turned back to her.

"I've got a bitch case of insomnia and it helps to come read." He closed some of the books and shuffled them into order. Lucy noted some of the titles. 'Radiation and It's Effects', 'DNA and Genes: The Connection', and 'The Cure' to name a few. 

"Do you research gene and radiation theory?" She asked and Bruce's eyes twinkled when she met them with her own. 

"You could say that." He said ruefully. "There was an accident some years ago. A scientist was researching the 'Super Soldier' serum. Trying to replicate it. Trying to improve it for the government. He was being pressured to get the project finished and when he thought it was ready for human testing, he tested it on himself and the lab exploded. The radiation was so strong that it changed his genes-mutated him into a disaster- a monster. He lost everything. His credibility, his work, his love, his normal life." 

Bruce looked angry, upset and a little bit exhausted. Lucy felt the urge to comfort him, so she reached out and put her hand gently on his.

"He was a friend of yours, wasn't he? This scientist?" Bruce shrugged and replied, "I knew him." Lucy could see he was beginning to close up and she suddenly didn't want him to. She felt like she should try and help him to help his 'friend'. 

"Is he the Hulk?" She asked quietly and Bruce's head snapped up suddenly.

"How do you know about him?"

"I moved here from Alabama three years ago. Right after the attack on New York. I saw him. He was decimating so many of the aliens. He was a hero that day, but nobody's seen him since." She shrugged and pulled her hand back. "I studied gene suppression in college. Maybe we could get together again sometime soon and we can talk about it. Maybe I can help you help your friend." She smiled brightly. "I'll even help you put up all the books."

She stood and tugged Bruce with her. "You take this half and I'll take the other." She pushed one of the stacks towards him and took the other before she began the process of putting them away.

They met on several rows as they put the books away and she always caught Bruce looking at her. "What?" She asked once they had put all the books away. "Nothing. You just seem to know where everything goes." She laughed and replied, "I should, I temp here." At Bruce's look she laughed. 

"I'm a 30 year old woman with a degree in gene theory and education, what else am I going to do in a city as large as New York? Ironic, right?" She grabbed Bruce's offered hand as she stepped off of the stair step. 

Bruce's laugh was rich and deep and it was like night and day from his earlier mood.

"Do you have a way home?" Lucy asked as she watched Bruce gather his coat. She reached over and grabbed the pepper spray.

"I've got a car parked around back, but I'll probably walk back home since I'm as tired as I am. Don't want to have a wreck in the middle of New York City." he chuckled before throwing his messenger bag over his shoulder. 

They walked to the front hall where Lucy bent down and scooped up her abandoned purse. 

Bruce looked at her quizzically. “You just dropped your purse in the front room?” She blushed.

“I saw the lights and thought somebody was in here up to no good.” She shrugged. “That’s why I had the pepper spray when I woke you up.” Bruce laughed at her.

The exited the doors to the library and faced each other. Snow was beginning to fall around them and Lucy looked up with a smile.

When she looked back, Bruce was smiling fondly at her.

She stuck her hand out again and he took it immediately.

"It was nice to meet you, Mister Bruce Banner." She told him.

"And you Miss Lucy Monroe." He took her hand and-in a complete non-Bruce act, kissed the top of her hand. He seemed to understand what he had just done and- with pink tipped ears- turned around to walk down East Broadway. 

Lucy was stunned. She had just met Bruce Banner-the man whose books she had poured over when she was in college. The Hulk. And he had called himself a monster after everything he had done. She wished he had agreed to let her help him. She pulled her scarf tighter around her throat before beginning the trek to her horrible little apartment.


	2. It's Good to See You Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce finally admits he may possibly need help with a cure and goes to accept Lucy's offer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has taken so long to get this updated. I am a horrible person and writer, so here I am apologizing to anybody still following this. Hopefully you will enjoy!

It had been a few hours since Bruce had seen Lucy and he hadn’t stopped thinking about her.

Once he had gotten back to Tony’s new tower- he had yet to name it something- he had gone right to bed, no sleep aide needed. He hadn’t even dreamed of anything from his past. He woke up refreshed and- God forbid, happy.

It was later that morning when Tony got involved. Bruce was surprised it took the man that long. 

Bruce was still in his pajamas, finishing a cup of tea and looking over some notes when Tony entered. 

Bruce ignored him as he perused the shelves of books. 

“So, who is she?” Tony had moved to sit on the stool in front of the bar. 

Bruce adjusted his glasses and looked at Tony over the brim of his cup of tea. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Bruce took another sip from his cup.

“You come in at ass o’clock in the morning, sleep until-” Tony looked at his watch. “Nine, and-” he grabbed Bruce’s wrist and pulled his hand towards him and peered into his cup. “You’re not even drinking coffee. It’s tea.” 

Tony looked affronted. “What happened to my insomniac best friend? To the man who stays up at all hours and keeps going with nine cups of coffee? The man who-”.

Bruce pulled his hand back and grinned. “I think you’re overreacting, Tony. I was like that not twelve hours ago. People don’t change in twelve hours. I wanted tea this morning.” Bruce interrupted with another, self-satisfied sip of tea. He was taking great joy in Tony’s frustration. 

Tony just stared at him.

“Fine. I was at the library and fell asleep; a young woman woke me up. She introduced herself, and then helped me put away my books. Her name is Lucy and she has a degree in gene theory and education. I walked her out and we went our separate ways.” Bruce shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing else to it. We can’t all have girls fawning over us, Anthony.” Bruce teased.

“You don’t have any girls on you, Robert.” Tony countered with a grin. “Anything else to this gene-theory-degree-girl?”

“If she happened to offer to help me help a friend who has anger issues, then that’s none of my business.” 

Tony’s eyes widened.

“She’s a half attractive female that offered to help you with your problem and you turned her down? Bruce, you really have lost it.”

“Be aware of my history, Tony. The last girl who was half attractive who tried to help me with a problem ran away in complete terror- and I haven’t seen or heard from her since.” Bruce moved away from the bar to put his cup in the sink. 

Betty had run away from him and he was scared of himself too much to offer his soul up to anyone. 

He heard a rustling of papers behind him and turned to see Tony rifling through the pages of notes he had written on Lucy Monroe’s thesis. Bruce leaned a hip against the counter and waited for Tony’s response.

“Hell Bruce, if you don’t want her, I’ll take her. We need another gene researcher in R&D. This girl’s a certified genius and she’s only thirty years old. Wait, she went to Desert State, too? You probably lectured her at one point. It’s a perfect match. She’s the only remotely attractive person- besides me- that can keep up with your brain. You have to go see her, if only for my sake.” 

Bruce rolled his eyes. “Tony, when I was fifteen, she was in diapers. I’m too old for her even if I was open to a relationship.”

“Bruce,” Tony moved off the stool to Bruce’s side and placed his hands on his shoulders. “I order you to find this girl and bring her back. You know I won’t let up until you do as I say.”

Bruce put a hand to his face and rubbed at the stubble on his jaw. 

He needed to shave and try to tame his hair if he was going to go anywhere today. 

“Fine. Let me get dressed. Her name is Lucy Monroe and she said she works as a temp at the library. I’m counting on you to find her before I finish my shower.” Bruce moved out from under Tony’s hands and plopped his glasses on the counter as he walked past.

“She is located at the Institute for Special Education on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx, sir.” Came the overhead voice of JARVIS. Bruce turned around and raised an eyebrow at Tony.

“What? You wanted to know where she was before you finished your shower. You haven’t finished your shower yet.” Bruce was tempted to flip him off, but thought better. 

He was an adult after all. The childishness was Tony’s forte. 

Tony waved before turning to walk out the door, leaving Bruce to his apartment. He sighed before making his way to the bathroom. He stripped off his pajama bottoms and t-shirt before moving to the shower and turning the water on to warm up.

He couldn’t believe his luck. A young, pretty, genius level woman wanted to help him without even knowing his history. It was hard to find such genuine people in the world and before long, Bruce was berating himself for not even getting the girl’s number in the first place. 

He stepped into the shower and began washing is body, letting the hot water wash over his sore muscle. He was too tense. He finished washing himself and got out of the shower, tucking a towel around his waist before getting out his razor and shaving his jaw. 

He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. He was old and tired. 

Bruce finished drying himself and crossed to his bedroom closet. He pulled out a good pair of jeans, a dark green t-shirt, and a yellow sweater. 

Natasha said that yellow looked good on him. 

He pulled on a pair of boxers and finished dressing, pulling on his loafers and grabbing his coat, wallet, and glasses before heading down to the main communal kitchen and entertainment space of his teammates. 

Once there, he found Tony sipping on what he guessed was his seventh cup that morning reading on his tablet, Steve was eating a bowl of oatmeal and reading the newspaper, while Clint and Nat looked as if they had just come in from their morning workouts. Everyone looked at him as he emerged from the elevator.

“What?” he asked. 

He moved to the refrigerator and pulled out a handful of grapes. 

He threw one up in the air and caught it in his mouth.

“Doctor, are you feeling alright?” Steve asked and Bruce just grinned. After his shower, he found that he was thoroughly looking forward to seeing Lucy again. 

“Peachy.” He replied and threw another grape. He caught this one, waved at his teammates and exited the building.

He greeted Happy before getting into the car. He liked Happy. He didn’t talk much- at least to Bruce- and for that he was thankful. They did exchange pleasantries before Bruce burrowed into the warmth of the car and fell into a light doze. 

He awoke around twenty minutes later when the car stopped. 

“Do you need me to stay, Doc?” Happy asked, but Bruce shook his head.

“I know how to call a cab, Happy. I’ll be fine. Go home, rest. Warm up.”  
He thanked Happy and exited the car, looking around at the building. The three story building was old, but looked like it was kept up. He walked across the grounds, enjoying the sun shining down on his head.

He pulled open the doors and found the office quickly.

An older woman looked up from the newspaper when Bruce walked in.

“How may I help you, sir?” she asked, eyeing him up and down.

“Um, yes ma’am, I’m here to see Miss Lucy Monroe. I was told that she works here?” the end sounded like a question, and Bruce cleared his throat. 

“She’s in room 208. It’ll say her name on a plaque outside the door. Try to make it short, she doesn’t like interruptions when she’s with the children.” The older woman told him with a solid stare. Bruce ducked his head.

“Yes, ma’am. I will. I only need to discuss a few things with her.” Bruce took his leave and made for the stairs. He climbed the steps and found her room. He inhaled and opened the door. The sight he was met by surprised him. 

There were no desks, only twelve small yoga mats where twelve small children sat, their attention set raptly on their teacher.

Lucy was wearing a denim skirt with a white blouse tucked in, hair pulled back into a twist. She was standing on her own yoga mat. Her small feet were bare and Bruce chuckled. Her eyes were closed, but her hands were moving slowly, forming words for her children.

They’re deaf Bruce thought to himself. It had been a while since he had used the language, but he managed to follow her hands.

Lucy’s hands were graceful and she went through the hand motions. Bruce cleared his throat and rapped his knuckles on the door. Lucy opened one eye, then both upon seeing Bruce. She nodded once in acknowledgement, never stopping her hands.

A few moments later and she let her hands fall to her sides. She smiled at her children and waved Bruce over. He suddenly had twelve sets of doe-eyes set on him as he walked further into the room and to Lucy’s side. 

Lucy spoke as she signed, “This is my friend Bruce. Can you say hello to Bruce?” the class waved and signed their hellos and Bruce smiled and signed back to them. Their eyes widened; so did Lucy’s. 

“Okay, chickies. I think we’ve done enough yoga today. I want everybody to head across to Miss Penelope’s room to begin math. I will see you all in about an hour.” She smiled and accepted hugs and gave kisses in return to any student that came up to her. 

Once the class was empty, she turned to Bruce. “How can I help you?” she asked, making her way to roll up the mats left behind.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said this morning. I want to take you up on your offer to help me, help my friend.” He shrugged at her.

“You do know that I know exactly who you are, Bruce. I know you’re the Hulk.” When he looked away, she hurriedly added, “But I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me. I’m flattered that you would take up my offer anyway. I’m nowhere near the level that you are in any field, but I’ll try to help you.”

“I read your thesis this morning. It’s fascinating, Lucy.” He was looking anywhere but at her. “Would you-would you like to have coffee with me? Right now? Maybe? I’d like to discuss this endeavor further, if you don’t mind.” He met her eyes and she smiled at him and nodded. 

“Let me grab a few things and I’ll meet you outside.” She turned and began to gather a few things.

Bruce walked out of the classroom and back outside. A few minutes later and Lucy came out, wearing a pair of bright yellow tights, a set of ankle boots and her pea coat. A scarf was wrapped around her throat and she had let her hair down. 

Bruce didn’t know what to do. They began to walk in silence, arms brushing gently. Warmth from both their bodies began to sink into the others. Both were comforted, but didn’t voice it. “So, where to?” Lucy asked as they walked.

“I know a little place not too far from here. It’s called Lydig Coffee House. It’s about a block from here.” Bruce pushed his hands into his coat pockets and tilted his face up, letting the sun fall on his face.

They walked in companionable silence until Bruce told her to turn right. They crossed the street and Lucy found herself looking at a ramshackle coffee shop. “Trust me, it’s good.” Bruce said as he opened the door for her.

They ordered two coffees and chose a small bar table to sit at. 

“So, why did you agree to my proposition? I mean, yes, I offered, but why did you accept?” she blew on the coffee and took a large sip. 

“Because I’ve tried everything, so what’s one more set of eyes helping me? I’ve always been the one to work with my genes, so why not ask a genes expert to add to the mix? If I’m not working with Tony Stark, I’m working on a cure for myself. It gets tiring, and I’m no longer able to pick out any abnormalities.” He shrugged and began to twirl the coffee cup around in circles.

“I just really want to be normal again. If there’s even a slight possibility that you could help…I’ll take that chance. So, what do you say?” 

Lucy turned her head to look out the window. Helping people was something she always did and the prospect of helping Bruce, to cure the Hulk was too much for her. She turned back to Bruce and held her coffee cup aloft.

“To a cure…” Bruce grinned and raised his own cup, clicking it gently against hers. 

“Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed this update. Hope everyone has a fabulous day!


End file.
